A Sense Of Urgency by John Kotter, Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School is about what a true sense of urgency in an organisation really is, why is it becoming an exceptionally important asset, and how it can be created and sustained within organisations. John Kotter has also written few other books such as Leading Change, Our Iceberg is Melting and The Heart of Change. John Kotter was rated as Kotter the # 1 “leadership guru” in America on October 2001 in Business Week magazine. He is also one of the bestselling author in America. J.Kotter has published sixteen books, twelve of which have been business bestsellers and six of which have won awards and honors.
This non-fiction book explains about the true sense of urgency. The real solution to the complacency problem is a true sense of urgency. True sense of urgency focuses on critical issues, not agendas with the important and the trivial. It is actually driven by deep determination to win, not anxiety about losing. With an attitude of true urgency, you try to accomplish something important everyday.
John Kotter explains that a real sense of urgency is a highly positive and highly focused force. Because it is naturally directs you to be truly alert to what’s really happening, it rarely leads to a race to deal with the trivial, to pursue minor pet projects to larger organisations, or to tackle important issues in uninformed, potentially dangerous ways.
Complacency is common and very often invisible to people involved. Success easily produces complacency. Complacency here refers to satisfaction or a feeling of contentment. This book tells us that a false or misguided sense of urgency occurs at times. With a false sense of urgency an organisation does have a great deal of energized action, but it’s driven by anxiety, anger and frustration and not a focused determination to win. People constantly see the frenzied action, assume that it represents true sense of urgency, and then move ahead, only to encounter problems and failures.
To overcome these problems, the author suggests strategies and practical tactics. The strategies for increasing true urgency is giving people involved the important facts and winning their hearts and minds. He explains that an action that is exceptionally alert, externally oriented, relentlessly aimed at winning, making some progress each and every day, and constantly purging low value-added activities are created all by focusing on the heart and not just the mind.
J.Kotter’s first tactic is “Bring the Outside In”. He explains that internal reality reconnects with the external opportunities and hazards. He suggests that bring in emotionally compelling data, people, video, sites and sounds. The second tactic is “Behave with Urgency Every Day”. We should never act content, anxious or angry. Demonstrate our own sense of urgency always in meetings, one-on-one interactions, memos and e-mail and do so as visibly as possible to as many people as possible.
“Find Opportunity in Crises” is the third one. The author emphasizes that we must always be alert to see if crises can be a friend, not just a dreadful enemy, in order to destroy complacency. Proceed with caution and never be naïve, since crises can be deadly. And the fourth tactic is “Deal with the Nonos”. The relentless urgency-killers should be removed or neutralised. These are those people who are not skeptics but are determined to keep a group complacent or, if needed, to create destructive urgency. 3
From my point of view, as a reader, A Sense of Urgency is a very informative, interesting and knowledgeable. The author’s words and sentence usage are simple and understandable. John Kotter explains facts very interestingly. His points and ideas make me think deeply and understand greatly. All his strategies and tactics are applicable in my field. I learnt a lot and highly agree with all his ideas and views about true sense of urgency and how complacency plays roles in an organisation. So, lets focus on quick and the easy ways and get started now.
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